Rare celestial sight due at twilight

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On Thursday evening, around twilight, a rare combination of the Moon and planets will be visible with the naked eye.

Jupiter, Mars and Saturn along with the thin crescent moon will converge near the horizon inside an imaginary circle only nine degrees across (about one tenth of the wedge of sky from the horizon to directly above the head).

"It's going to be beautiful," says Vince Huegele, a researcher at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. "And best of all, you won't need a telescope to see it, just your naked eye."

A spokesperson from the Sydney Observatory said that viewers in the southern hemisphere can easily locate the planetary get-together by finding the delicate crescent moon in the west-northwesterly area of the sky, just on twilight. Next to it will be snuggled Jupiter (the brightest), Mars (slightly above and to the right), and Saturn (above the other two planets). The constellations of Pisces and Cetus can be seen nearby.

NASA reports that although the planets will appear to be close together, there's little danger of collision. The Moon is 384,000km away from Earth, while Mars is 349 million km, Jupiter 875 million km and Saturn 1493 million km away.

The planets will reappear again and will be even closer on April 15, but this time not in the presence of the moon.

Then on May 5 astronomers report there will be a major alignment of the planets, which has the doomsdayers preparing for potential catastrophe. This event will see the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn converge into an area of the sky less than 25 degrees across. Unfortunately, the event won't be visible as it will occur during daylight hours.

Such a cluster of five planets happens once every 57 years on average.